I have had this thing for about 4 years now and the kid always enjoyed driving it. But now that he is older it's still fun to drive but it's definitely showing its age. I bought it used and replaced the dying battery with a 12v 18ah one that would last a decently long time (among other minor fixes).

So now I want it to run faster. I have been reading these forums for hours and the only thing I know is that I don't know exactly what to get. I want to go the 18V route so here are my guesses at what I need.

HPI Racing 1145 Gt 550 Motor / Traxxas 1585 Titan Marine 550 Motor / Duratrax 550 Size Motor (which best handles 18V?)
Pinion (teeth/size?)
Motor heatsink
redo all wiring with 10AWG wiring
6v 12ah batteries - 3 wired in serial
replace gearbox as its going (no idea what to get here)
something to indicate the power remaining as I'm sure the stock one will be inaccurate now (not necessary though)
would also like to replace the gas pedal with a gradual one if it's not too big a hack.

The plastic tires started to wear through so I cut up old bike tires and screwed them on. I'm not against replacing these with actual rubber tires if recommended to do so, I've read it's much quieter on roads which is mostly what this is on.

This will give you two key benefits...
1. Vehicle starts at 12v then automatically kicks it up to 18v once it's moving. This will be a lot less stressful on your motors and gears.
2. The Battery Saver feature will shut your fans/lights/etc off after 5 minutes of no activity on the throttle pedal.

I try not to actively pimp my products too much here but the rubber tires with 18V on pavement thing made me cringe a little with visions of stripped gears and crying children. Ice cream can't fix everything.

Another option would be the full blown 24V with ESC. This would give you true soft start and proportional throttle. At a higher cost though. All comes down to preference and how much room you have to work with.

Skip the motor and gearing upgrades. They rarely work out. 18v and a turbo timer will be a sweet setup that will protect the gearboxes as much as possible when running rubber tires yet give better top end speed than now. A full blown ESC is wonderful but a significant jump in cost and work.

toycrusher wrote:Skip the motor and gearing upgrades. They rarely work out. 18v and a turbo timer will be a sweet setup that will protect the gearboxes as much as possible when running rubber tires yet give better top end speed than now. A full blown ESC is wonderful but a significant jump in cost and work.

I agree. If you like to be tinkering constantly, you can upgrade motors and such. It gets costly and provides no guarantees. If your goal is to get it done so your kids can enjoy it, do the above.

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!..........Out of somebody's garbage

I'm trying to get out of PWs.........That idea's not working out real well......

My time on MPW is limited these days. I'm trying to check in everyday.....please be patient when awaiting responses.

hummm I would rather go the gradual pedal route. Probably worse for the gears but meh, it's old, and he's old enough to handle it at this point. And the stock motor is ok with going to 18v? I'm fine with burning it out as long as it lasts at least a little while.

And really left field question but has anyone ever 3d printed gears?

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If you are going to go full blown ESC, then this is everything you need to know. There is also a member who offers pretty darn complete kits for less money than you could piece it together for yourself

Hi, My son whom is 4 and weighs 45 pounds we decided to pimp out his Ford F-150 Extreme we went with new batteries and the fastest kit from ML Toys and so far he has worn out 2 of the gear box plastic gear holders, and he now has torqued the entire rear end so that the plastic housing flexed so much it allows the motors to move when he floors it we did add the accelerator mod. but it still just spins the tires constantly. We also have it with the 2 12 volt in series and added a third 12 volt for his am/fm cd player and his headlights and under glow lights and rewired the entire thing and I am constantly working on it yet he LOVES it and how it drifts yet we are now on third set of tires. I bought him a Razor drifter and it is now the thing he loves and goes to. I see them new for 190 at Sears and Toys R us will match price and used I have seen them for 120 so food for thought. If I had to honestly do it all over again and we are building a new truck from scratch and bought a new 2018 Ford F 150 mold that is to be released with a inside hook up at Ford and we are gonna go with rubber and esc and use the more durable motors that are used in Razors, and picked up Ford as a sponsor so he will do drifting shows at Truck pulls and events.
I am not sure if this helps or just adds to the confusion but it is what it is a plastic truck that so far has with initial cost over a grand in it and countless hours of time.